> Years ago, my Mate the Professor gave me a bottle of this wine and it took me yonks to trace it back to its source. And by one of…
> Scene at the Urige Weinkeller, Bodenheim
> Now you see ’em. Now you don’t. Lydia Bugner has a bell-push next to her asparagus garage. It’s the “Asparagus bell” during the season. When the asparagus is finished,…
> Thirsty work, this blogging. Vitamin P, you ask? Paulaner unfiltered wheat beer. Good against scurvy, fallen arches and tornadoes. So they say… Cheers Bat….
> ..Nelson Mainz. They even name buildings after her over here. Shhhh. Especially if they’re the Hechtsheim warehouse of the Maler-Einkauf eG (Painters’ Supply Co-op) But don’t tell her –…
> While the financial wheeling-dealing-horsetrading continues in an attempt to squeeze as much money as possible out of save the Karstadt group of department stores (“You can have it for…
> “Quite rightly” would say Donovan Leitch. Multicoloured Achillea millefolium blossoms (Common Yarrow or Schafgabe to you….) on the market. I was convinced that they put the stems in different…
> …for nothing. Mainz has a mixture of bike lanes, pedestrian precincts where you ride at full whack, pedestrian precincts where you can ride at walking pace and pedestrian precincts…
> Signora Anna on the market has real veggies. And organic lemons that a supermarket chain would reject for “not being perfect” She also has the only zucchini blossoms on…
> Splurged big the other day and bought the chappy who’s been (in a heavily cropped version) my avatar for the past few years. And from whom else, but the…
> Some shops close and you don’t miss them. Walk past an empty shop front and say “What used to be in there?” or “When did they close? Didn’t read…
> It’s either too hot (possibly) or too early (unlikely) for an ice cream. At least the tablecloths stay clean….
> ..Texas Mainz. Phenomenal ravioli at the excellent cheese/excellent ham/excellent pasta/excellent everything stand on the market. These are filled with ricotta and either basil, rocket or cep mushrooms. Simmer in…
> My mate, Bill Leslie, visited us years ago and commented on the fact that villages died out at lunchtime. “Do people actually LIVE here, John?” he’d ask “Where are…
> Scene in the Domstrasse outside the Cathedral Museum.
> If you’re quick enough and grab the bud of a caper flower (Capparis spinosa L.) before it blossoms, you can pickle it in a brine solution and then chop…
> Cue for a song: Joan Osborne with the eponymous (look it up – that’s what dictionaries is for) song from the terminally excellent “Standing in the shadows of…
> Selling bretzels and assorted colourful mini-pizze is a hard road to hoe in this sort of weather. When the outside temperature is only marginally (if that…) lower than in…
> …all in a row. Which is either a movie with Rock Hudson a Joe Walsh song on the Eagles’ definitive “Hotel California” album a pressie from a family of…
> Helen, MDP’s favourite stand-in blogger, resurfaced briefly the other week before disappearing to that country next to New Zealand for the next 6 weeks. Met up at the…
….Seppl! Hubert von Goisern is from Linz. So is Seppl. We used to work together in the 1970s/80s and we paired up pretty well, being the only 2 non-Germans in…
> So Hubert‘s barge fronts up in Mainz, we’re all sitting expectantly on the bleachers when Hubert’s roadie riverie takes the mike and says “We have a slight problem…..”. It’s…
> This one almost didn’t get done. 2 years ago this month, Hubert von Goisern‘s barge docked in Mainz’s commercial port for a concert. Hubert’s an Austrian alt.rock musician who…
> Thus wrote an English commentator of yesterday’s stuffing of the Argentines result. The boutiques in Mainz seem to be getting into the spirit of things, too. I mean, how…
> When you have bits of your inner meniscus cut away via keyhole surgery, all the gunk and stuff that stays in the joint glues your kneecap to whatever else…
> My life seems to have been littered with hamburger joints, motorway cafs and greasy spoon eateries. When you work shifts at airports, you take whatever food’s on offer. At…
> Thinks (reflects?): Either a sunset or a 50 megaton nucular thingie taking out Wiesbaden. Either way. Mainz’s soon-to-be-relocated container port The usual gang’s along for the trip – click…
> …a warm gun …..the home team stuffing the Poms 4:1 in the World Cup
> ….Summer Wine Bugner asparagus. Lydia Bugner, our asparagus lady, is quitting. Granted – it’s a bugger of a job. You’re up at stupid o’clock every morning, it’s back-breaking work,…
> End of an era. Greisinger, a retailer of beds, mattresses, quilts, blankets, pillows and sweet dreams, is closing down at the end of July after 75 years. Great…
> If you drive through the Mainzer Strasse, the secondary main drag (the Breite Strasse is the monguntian equivalent of the Champs Elysee..) in Gonsenheim, you’ll see wall to wall…
Mainz Daily Photo 